News Release Archives

BCTF News Release

New BC Teachers’ Council election botched by Ministry of Education

Administrative bungling by the Teacher Regulation Branch (TRB) has resulted in a large number of BC teachers being disenfranchised from voting for their representatives on the new Teachers’ Council.

“It’s unfortunate that the democratic process has been so thoroughly botched in terms of electing the representatives to lead the new Council set up to replace the former College of Teachers,” said BCTF President Susan Lambert. “It’s fundamentally undemocratic because a large number of teachers will be denied the right to vote.”

The TRB came into existence on January 9, 2012 and this would be the first voting process under its mandate.

Many teachers have not received their ballots due to large numbers of inaccuracies in the mailing lists used by the TRB, which did not provide notice to teaching certificate holders of the vote or attempt to update their voters’ list prior to the election.

Now, after having been advised that many teachers have not yet received their ballots, the TRB has indicated it is unwilling to extend the voting period past the deadline of 4:30 p.m., March 20, 2012.

“We’re concerned about the intransigence of the Teacher Regulation Branch, which has refused to delay the voting until their processes can be fixed,” Lambert said.

She questioned why the TRB would rush into a flawed voting process.

“What’s the rush?” Lambert asked. “It’s much more important to step back and take the time to do this properly. We are calling on the TRB to do the right thing and extend the deadline.”